wdy?" he addressed again; and surveyed, eying every detail of my
clothing.

"Howdy?" said I.

"Yu know me?"

"Your name is Daniel, isn't it?"

"No, 'tain't. It's Bonnie Bravo on the trail."

"All right, sir," said I. "Whichever you prefer."

"I 'laow we pull out this arternoon," he volunteered farther.

"I'm agreeable," I responded. "The sooner the better, where I'm
concerned."

"I 'laow yu (and he pronounced it, nasally, yee-ou) been seein' the
elephant in Benton an' it skinned yu."

"I saw all of Benton I wish to see," I granted. "You've been there?"

"I won four bits, an' then yu bet I quit," he greedily proclaimed. "I was
too smart for 'em. I 'laow yu're a greenie, ain't yu?"

"In some ways I am, in some ways I'm not."

"I 'laow yu aim to go through with this train to Salt Lake, do yu?"

"That's the engagement I've made with Mr. Jenks."

"Don't feel too smart, yoreself, in them new clothes?"

"No. They're all I have. They won't be new long."

"Yu bet they won't. Ain't afeared of peterin' aout on the way, be yu? I
'laow yu're sickly."

"I'll take my chances," I smiled, although he was irritating in the
extreme.

"It's four hunderd mile, an' twenty mile at a stretch withaout water. Most
the water's pizen, too, from hyar to the mountings."

"I'll have to drink what the rest drink, I suppose."

"I 'laow the Injuns are like to get us. They're powerful bad in that thar
desert. Ain't afeared o' Injuns, be yu?"

"I'll have to take my chances on that, too, won't I?"

"They sculped a whole passel o' surveyors, month ago," he persisted.
"Yu'll sing a different tyune arter yu've been corralled with nothin' to
drink." He viciously snapped his whip, the while inspecting me as if
seeking for other joints in my armor. "Yu aim to stay long in Zion?"

"I haven't planned anything about that."

"Reckon yu're wise, Mister. We don't think much o' Gentiles, yonder. We
don't want 'em, nohaow. They'd all better git aout. The Saints settled
that country an' it's ourn."

"If you're a sample, you're welcome to live there," I retorted. "I think
I'd prefer some place else."

"Haow?" he bleated. "Thar ain't no place as good. All the rest the world
has sold itself to the devil."

"How much of the world have you seen?" I asked.

"I've seen a heap. I've been as fur east as Cheyenne--I've teamed acrost
twice, so I know. An' I know what the elders say; they come from the East
an' some of 'em have been as fur as Engl